Bengaluru: The city is set to see more Ganesha idols made at sustainability-focused community workshops being used for celebrations during the festive season, as citizen groups, lake activists and resident welfare associations (RWAs) encourage families to move away from Plaster-of-Paris idols and embrace natural clay.In the weeks leading up to Ganesh Chaturthi, several neighbourhood groups across the city organised clay idol-making workshops, many of them free, giving children and families an opportunity to make idols using natural clay and mud. The idols made during these sessions will be placed in homes this weekend for the festival, which falls on Monday.The workshops were an important part of the city’s efforts to make festive celebrations more sustainable. Organisers said the idea went beyond simply replacing PoP idols with clay ones: by making the idols themselves, participants, particularly children, gained a better understanding of the environmental impact of their festival choices. “Children are the best ambassadors of change. If they learn sustainable practices at a young age, they carry those values throughout their lives and influence their families as well,” said NH Subramanian, secretary of Benniganahalli Kere Community Development Trust.Across Bengaluru, such workshops are increasingly becoming an annual feature of the festive calendar. HSR Citizen Forum, for instance, has been conducting clay idol-making sessions for more than a decade, helping hundreds of children learn about environmentally responsible celebrations.For many families, the exercise has become a way of retaining the cultural and devotional significance of Ganesh Chaturthi. Stricter enforcement by civic authorities, along with years of awareness campaigns by environmental organisations, has encouraged more citizens to consider alternatives.Organisers are also paying attention to the source of the clay used in these workshops, ensuring that it comes from authentic suppliers and remains completely biodegradable. This, according to them, has helped reassure families that their efforts towards sustainable celebrations do not come at the cost of tradition.
